J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

This is one of twenty-eight sketches of mountain scenes (some including castles and other buildings) on the rectos and versos of sixteen pieces of grey paper torn carefully from a single sheet; they were likely all made in the vicinity of Innsbruck within a short period around 23 September 1833, when Turner was travelling back from Venice towards the end of his tour, as discussed in the Introduction to the present subsection.

The setting is a broad valley with a lake or broad river in the foreground, indicated by the strong zig-zag reflection in white chalk from what seems to be a waxing gibbous moon, as shown in several similar sketches; for the others and how the moon’s phase fits with the late September date, see under D33697 (CCCXLI 18v), perhaps drawn on the same occasion. There are touches of white on the distant peaks, and loose hatching across the sky and parts of the landscape work in combination with localised heavy shading to evoke the glow of moonlight.

The recto is D33859 (CCCXLI 166), a similar scene annotated with remarks on colour and light effects.

Technical notes:

There is some slight brown staining.